With "mentions" a potential ranking factor, links have become less important, and influencer marketing has become more effective for more than just SEO.

Upon our moving away from obsessive link-building, SEO has become an integral part of organic strategy.

Influencers are as important in the travel industry as in any other vertical.

Thomas Cook Airlines invests in influencers for the promotion of key destinations, new route launches, new products and brand sponsorships.

"Identifying the right influencer is absolutely the key."

We analyze influencers' followers using tools, and look at the influencer's style, but also speak directly to the influencer to ensure compatibility.

We look at engagement: followers, likes, shares, comments.

And we evaluate influencers on the basis of their own SEO metrics: domain authority, citation flow and trust flow.

Regarding compensation: we tend to take influencers on trips with us, or send them to a destination to which they're keen to go. We use paid collaboration less often, mainly for specific high-tier campaigns or to address exclusive brand ambassadors.

Influencers should feel free to express their opinions, but we need to ensure the visibility of the brand.

KPIs we use are a mix of likes, shares, backlinks and mentions; also SEO rank changes and referrals from the influencer's content.

Authenticity is hard to measure, but how the influencer acknowledges comments, likes and shares could be an indicator, along with the way opinions are expressed.

An influencer who's only interested in monetary gain is a poor fit, regardless of level of authority.

I'm now following Thomas Cook Airlines (@TCAirlinesUK) on Twitter, and will report anything interesting I find out from that.

- David

If you found this article helpful and would like to see more like it, please share it via the Share This Article link at the top of the page.

And if you have questions or comments, you can easily send them to me with the Quick Reply form, below.